"We're not critics. We're professional fan-girls." --- This blog is dedicated to movies and the entertainment industry. We use random selection to bring into light the best and worst of Netflix and off various columns highlighting new movies as well.

Blurb from Netflix:
While on a mission in space to save the sole survivor of a biological outbreak,
a search and rescue team encounters a looming threat to Earth.

Selina’s Point of View:

We’re on a bit of a roll here at Trust the Dice (no pun
intended).

In the past 2 weeks we’ve seen three phenomenal films and
only one that was meh. This movie was one of the former and, quite frankly, my
favorite of all the films we’ve seen. Not only in the past two weeks, put
possibly ever.

The point is that Infini
is not only going to join the ranks of my favorite films. That could mean
anything. I have a list here of 150 that grows every god-damn day. What matters
is that it’s joining the top of that list. Top 20, possibly even top 10.

I was shocked when I saw the critics’ ratings.

Looking at the score for this film on Rotten Tomatoes makes
me want to stop trusting the site altogether. Reading through the explanations
critics gave for disliking this movie leaves me baffled. The biggest complaint
I saw among the dreck was that it was inspired by other great films. That kind
of thing makes me want to throw apples at the heads of every critic on that
page.

Everyone and everything is inspired by someone or something
great that came before. Steven Spielberg, one of the most iconic directors
known, was inspired by other directors. He’s cited The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), directed by Robert Wise (Helen of Troy, The Body Snatcher, Born to
Kill), as the inspiration for two of his earliest projects. You might have
heard of them: Close Encounters of the
Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Does being inspired by another film make those two
movies any less amazing?

I’m betting the same critics that panned Infini would be the first to answer no.

I don’t think this film was disliked by the mainstream
critics because it was inspired by previous projects. I think it was disliked
because it wasn’t safe. It was definitely inspired by some of the greatest sci-fi
films: Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982) among them, but there
were some significant differences. I don’t believe Infini was a sub-par copy of those that came before. I think it
twisted the tropes enough to become a legend in its own right.

If critics weren’t assholes.

Infini was
brilliantly written by Shane Abbess (The
Osiris Child, Event Zero, Gabriel) and Brian Cachia (The Osiris Child, Sucker Punch, Californication). It was also
amazingly handled in direction by Abbess. The actors blew their various parts
out of the fucking water. Daniel MacPherson (The Osiris Child, Wild Boys, The Shannara Chronicles) delivered a
stellar performance. Some of his scenes with Luke Ford (The Osiris Child, McLeod’s Daughters, Ghost Machine) were just
unforgettably tense without losing that fantastic chemistry that the entire
cast seemed to have.

I realize that each individual review marks little more than
an opinion. That’s what I want to urge our readers to remember. You can go to
Rotten Tomatoes and read the reviews each of those critics wrote, but remember
each one was just that person’s opinion. Critics are no better than anyone
else. Some of them may have higher education, but that doesn’t make anyone more
qualified to express how they feel than the next person.

Movies are about entertainment. No one gets to tell us what
we will or won’t enjoy. That’s on us.

We here at Trust the Dice don’t like to consider ourselves
critics. We’re fangirls. We binge-watch shows. We stay up late to finish our
movies. We record old favorites on our DVRs or TiVOs. We follow our favorite
actors, writers, and directors. And, most importantly, no one can buy our
opinion. We have turned down sponsorships and we do not allow outside influence
to affect the way we feel. There are no editors or bosses breathing down our
necks to try to get us to lean one way or another on a film.

But our opinions are just that, opinions.

We’re not here to tell you what to watch. We’re here to
offer suggestions. This blog was initially developed to find those hidden gems
on Netflix that everyone scrolls by. That’s why we do everything randomly. We
get some big films in, but we also get a ton of movies that we’ve never heard
of.

In my opinion, Infini
in one of those diamonds that people might look past on Netflix because some
critic somewhere said it was inspired by Alien.

I highly recommend watching this film and deciding for
yourself.

Cat’s Point of View:

Wow.

That one word pretty much sums this movie up for me. I was
seriously impressed.

What else could I say about it? It was a brutal and horrific
thrill ride of awesome, reminiscent of elements of the Alien (1979) franchise and The
Thing (1982) scrambled together with some innovative twists.

I loved the concept of the slipstream as a new form of
long-distance travel, and really appreciate that it wasn’t presented as this
shiny foolproof thing. It’s just one of the many elements that had me fairly
giddy from a sci-fi fan’s point of view. I feel the urge to geek out over more
of such details; however, they come part and parcel with spoilers. Go watch the
movie to learn more!

There is so much that is left up to audience interpretation
as things come together. It left me hungry for more – to find out what happened
next. I would say that this had the potential to become a franchise of its own,
but I’d worry that this lightning in a bottle might be too hard to capture
again.

The cast busted their butts with this one. I didn’t have any
reservations on any of their performances – in fact, some were downright eerie.
It’s said that some of the cast didn’t leave the set once they started filming;
opting to stay there, instead, to maintain the feel of the movie’s environment
and reality. Their immersion really paid off.

I would definitely recommend this for fans of the genre –
especially sci-fi thrillers.

Blurb from Netflix:
An American teen’s summer romance with an English boy comes to an abrupt end
when rumors of World War III become a reality.

Selina’s Point of View:

I could watch this movie several times in a row and not get
bored of it.

There were some parts that were one the weird and kind of
icky side if you think about them, but even those moments added to the general
feel of the film. The mix of drama and romance worked incredibly well with the
war thriller aspects.

Make no mistake, this movie was DARK. It starts out light
and happy… and it continues that way for a long time. However, when it takes
that left turn into darkness, it is a sharp left turn and it never goes back.

The actors were amazing, the story was enthralling, and even
the script seemed to be memorable.

I know the Rotten Tomatoes score looks a little low, but
that’s because the movie didn’t really follow the book as closely as fans hoped
it would. I haven’t read the book, so I can only judge How I Live Now on its merit as a film. I think I’m happy about that
in this case.

Novel Cover

From the moment I saw the trailer to this film, I wanted to
see it. Not only was I not disappointed, but my expectations were blown
completely away.

Awesome.

Cat’s Point of View:

This was one of those films that hadn’t even been a blip on
my radar before. I was familiar with Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, City of Ember, Hanna), though. Her movie Brooklyn (2015) is currently burning a
hole in my DVR. I have too many hours-worth of programs piling up; much to my
husband’s dismay. Maybe after this busy month is over, I’ll watch it – but I
digress.

I haven’t seen her in enough films yet, really, to get a
good handle on whether or not her involvement earmarks something I can get
excited about automatically. Not yet, at least. I mean – there was that
body-snatching alien invasion movie that wasn’t all that great, right?

In any case, I enjoyed her performance here. I really felt
the emotional gauntlet. The way her character had to dig deep to find her grit
resonated as genuine.

Some of the plot here might be a little squidgy for some –
but keep in mind this is England we’re talking about. There’s a historical
track record there that accounts for that dismissal of taboo. If that didn’t
push buttons, then there’s likely a trigger-laden scene that would still be
uncomfortable to most – though, I’ll have to give them credit for executing it
tastefully. For the license afforded an R-Rated movie these days, they could
have gone a lot more explicit in some places. I think the film benefits for
that skillful restraint.

I loved how this movie painted the landscape and the English
countryside as an idyllic haven removed from what plagues the more heavily
populated areas. One sees why it was an ideal scenario during WWII to be sent
out of the cities and to places such as the setting for the majority of this
film.

George MacKay

The English cousins each shone in their own way. While George MacKay (Defiance, For Those in Peril, Bypass) as Eddie got a lot of focus, and I loved how they presented his character – it was Harley Bird (Peppa Pig, Doctor Who, Playhouse Presents) that stole the show as Piper out of the three.

I might go so far as to say that I love this movie – though,
it was heart-wrenching and dark enough that I will likely pass on watching it
again.